It was dark in this strange dressing room, Will had
vanished for some time. The only sounds
I could hear were the slight groans and mixed cheers from some distance
away. An hour passed before the door
opened again. In walked the two Thai men
brandishing their machetes, dragging behind them a bloodied and battered, half
dead man.
They dropped the body to the floor before leaving the
room.
All had gone quiet again except for the laboured
breathing of the corpse on the floor,
keeping my guard up, I moved closer to the man, his head rocking back
against the wall. Will.
His body covered in a mix of dirt, sand and blood, his
left arm carved open and gushing blood.
His face and torso bruised and battered.
He spoke softly against the echoing walls, explaining that his fight was
far more brutal than I could imagine, looking at what was left of him, I was
steadily reminded of my time in the alley with that Private Investigator Jack.
I don’t know how long I slept, I had dozed off on the bench in the centre of the room, to my shock,
Will was pacing around the room, straps of cloth tied firmly around his arm to
stem the blood. I had awoken to the
sound of a knock on the door, Xuc was back offering a breakfast of rice. Not wanting to die on an empty stomach, I
took the rice without question.
Another hour past, there was no sign of getting out of
here, the sound of doors opening and closing along the corridor were the only sounds
echoing in the darkness.
More doors opening and closing, the occasional scream
from somewhere down the hall, how long had we been here now, I had lost
track. Xuc had returned, the only
questions being asked were from will, requesting a needle and thread to sew his
arm back together.
The reality of the situation was becoming ever more
present, was I going to be let out, or had the worst happened, we had been
spotted and known to those who ran this establishment. If that were the case, Carter and Tom, only
God knows what has become of them.
It wasn’t long before more
screams echoed throughout the hallway, somehow though, strangely familiar. I knew that tone of voice, Carter, he was
alive, but for how long.
Xuc returned and ushered will out of the room,
promising to stitch his arm and return him to the room. Knowing that Will was losing blood and
turning a lighter shade of white, I let him go without questions. Always doing my best to be polite to Xuc, he
seemed to be the only person here who did not look at us as enemies.
Hours past, Will had not returned. More doors slammed and footprints echoed in
the darkness of the corridor as I continued to pace around the room. A small sliding hatch in the main door slid
open, something I had not noticed about it before, a strange tone of voice echoed
through it, talking in a laboured accent, a westerner by the sound of the voice
speaking to the local thugs.
The voice then spoke at me, the accent, German. My back was to the door, he continued to
speak at me, asking why I was here, he knew who I was, he knew who Carter was,
his questions were as the identities of Will and Tom. Explaining that they were tourists who wanted
to see a fight, I knew he didn’t believe me.
I turned slowly to see him, he was a giant, at least half a foot taller
than me, his physique was powerful, much like the Russian Kornovalov in
Mexico. This was clearly the Captain
Walker of Bangkok. I continued the
conversation, speaking of the gods that ‘SS’ serves and how wrong she is. He shrugged my comments off and told me that
he is here for the money, not the gods and the nonsense that follows them.
After about 10 minutes talking to him, he disappeared down
the hall and the latch slid shut, he wasn’t going to let me out, he wasn’t
going to do anything but let me rot down here.
Another day passed, I continued the daily routine of
prayer, pacing and worrying. It was
around lunch time that the screaming and bashing started, someone was being
beaten, badly. I looked more closely at the
bench in the room, its long slats held in by failing nails. Knowing that if I did nothing, I would soon
be doomed, I slammed the bench with my foot, freeing one of the long planks if
wood, about three feet in length and narrow enough to swing as a club, I rested
it back in place on the bench, if someone was coming for me, I at least could
arm myself, however futile it might be in the face of three or more men with
machetes.
After the screams had died down, footsteps and the
unmistakable sound of something being dragged.
The footsteps got closer and the bolt on the door to my prison clicked
open. Four men threw another bloodied
body into my company, Carter. His body
was broken, naked and covered from head to toe in blood, excrement and mud. The four men, all brandishing clubs, turned
to face me, grabbing the beam of the bench, I beckoned them to try. They did so, all grinning as they advanced. The first man was mine, swinging my weapon as
hard as I could, collecting him across the face, his teeth spraying across the
room followed by trails of blood, I turned to the second man only to see his
club for an instant as it crashed into the side of my head, I was done.
I woke in pain, my whole body, nothing felt normal, the
first blow knocked me out, I have no idea how long they continued to beat me
for, all I could feel is that it was clearly for some time.
I had a sack on over my head, my hand bound, my legs
bound, naked, I was outside, I could smell the air, I was near water, the smell
of the salt in the water was encouraging, if not for the circumstances I found
myself in. I lifted my head only to fell
something else slam into me.
Waking again to the gentle rocking of the seas, I was
still bound and gagged, I was in a boat, was I going to the island of SS? I
raised my head once more only to feel hands grab me and yet another blow.
I could feel the sun, it was showering me in warmth
that I had not felt for days, my hands and legs were free, my head still
covered. The voices of my captors seemed
to ramble in an uncontrollable fashion, their hands on me, gripping my arms to
keep me still. I was on my knees, the
feeling of grass swaying in the breeze around me, there was something calming
about where I was. The hands left me
momentarily, only to be replaced by a foot kicking me in the back sending me
into free fall, I feel for a short time, I screamed briefly before landing in a
pool of shallow water, ripping the hood from my head I looked up to see a large
grate closing above me, I was in another cell.
The cell was about four meters deep, its walls rock
and mud about a meter in diameter, as if this was a well that had no purpose,
the iron grate above me also seemed to have chains connected to it. In the air around me, giant bugs crawled
everywhere, on my skin, buzzing around my head, in the water at my feet, was
this where I would come to rest, was this where I was to die?
I climbed as best I could to the surface, the grate was
not moving, pressing my face to it I could see there were chains connected to
four wooden posts in the ground, in the distance, there were more posts, there
must be more cells. I called out to
Carter, my only hope was that he was here somewhere. The response came, Carter was alive, he
seemed to have the same idea, he must have been about 10 meters from me, he had
climbed as I had to the surface to get his bearings. Before I could ask anything of import, my
legs gave way and I fell back to the floor of the well, I was exhausted, I was
weak, naked, hungry and cold, being slowly eaten alive by these bugs that seem
to never stop, if there is a heaven, there must be a hell, had I arrived
finally?
Night came before long, the hours passed like
lifetimes as I sat, semi submerged, powerless in this place. I turned to all I knew, closing my eyes and
praying for salvation, there was nothing more I could do. Flickering light showered my cell, the light
of a fire. I climbed the walls of my
cell again to see a monstrous fire raging a few meters from me, around it, the
outline of a woman, a naked woman, chanting and worshipping the flames, my eyes
blurred as the heat from the fire washed over me, enough to knock me back to
the ground.
Waking to the feeling of my skin on fire, I ripped a
large insect from my chest that seemed to be feasting, squashing it in my
hand. Looking to the ski, a figure was
standing at the grate. My eyes blurring
in the contrast of darkness mixed with the single source of light. It appeared to be a woman, a young woman,
dressed in a floral summer dress, I couldn’t help myself, calling her by name,
Savitree, she did not respond, she only watched. Vanishing from view, I could hear Carter also
address her, the muffled noise made quite impossible to hear down in the
darkness of my prison.
Night came again, another fire lit the dim air, the
woman who seemed so vocal by the flames and so quiet in the daylight had
resumed her chanting. I heard Carter
calling in the distance, his voice seemed to stop the chanting
momentarily. Weak and cold I again made
the climb to the top of my cell, Carter’s voice was just audible, he had begun
some chanting of his own, I recognised it, it was the chanting learned from our
ordeal in the Yucatan. Watching the
woman, she picked up a long speak from the ground and walked over the where
Carter must have been, the spear at least two meters long, towered above her,
the blade at its peak, broad and shimmering in the fire light. She began driving it into Carter’s cage, his
chanting stopped but no screams. After a
few moments, the spear disappeared from her hands, it was lost to her down the
cell. I slipped again sending me to the
bottom of my cell, that was it, I was done.
I woke still in the darkness, Carter was screaming, his voice piercing
and chilling. I called back to him,
demanding to know what was happening. He
did not respond, silence took over the air.
Another hour past, chains above me began to rattle, I
called to the sky, demanding to know what was going on. It was Carter’s voice that answered, beckoning
me to climb as he had gotten out of his cage and was removing the chains from
mine. Without question I climbed again,
in time for the grate to slide open and reveal Carter staring at me, his face
was pale, his body still bloodied and beaten.
In his hand however, he brandished a large blade, snapped from the head
of the spear that I had seen in the hands of the woman. He aided me out of my hole, the fire still
alight, but failing, both of us cold, we threw all manner of wood we could find
on the fire until it roared to life again.
Looking around the fire, there were several pits like the one I had been
imprisoned in, all empty, save one or two that revealed bones at their base. On the grass around the fire, all of Carters
belongings, all charred and burnt, whatever had happened, it was clear to me
that I was to be left to die and that Carter was who she was after.
Looking outward, we were on the peak of a small
island, water on all sides. Carter gave
me the long wooden staff that was the spear, minus the blade, I also pulled a
branch from the fire to use as a torch for our decent down to the water,
hopefully to discover a boat or some mode of transportation out of here.
Our decent was slow, a small walking path was barely
visible by the light of the torch. After
about half an hour or walking I noticed something in the undergrowth, a wire, a
trip wire. Stopping Carter from walking
straight into it, it was connected to a large swinging branch filled with
spines and spikes.
We traversed down further for another half an hour,
now cautious of where we placed our muddied feet.
Pushing on, a snap of a branch ahead threw Carter and
me into alertness, still moving downhill, we moved cautiously, something was
out here with us. A voice in the dark
rang out, two voices, Tom and Will, they had found us.
They sprang from the side of the walking track, both
looking worse for ware, however, clothed and armed, they presented us with a
bag of mixed contents, clothes, weapons, food and water. I took one of my shirts from within and
doused it in water after first drinking half of the contents, I was parched
beyond belief, the water running down my throat filling me with new life. I used the shirt to wipe my body, a mixture
of blood and muck covering the shirt.
After a few minutes of repeating the procedure, I began getting dressed,
the clothes, standard and loose, clearly some of Tom’s, I was complaining
however, tightening the belt and stuffing a couple of the magazines from the
1911 pistol I pulled from the bag in my
pockets.
We moved slowly back down the hill to a small
clearing, enough space for the four of us to talk and eat.
Will was the first to talk, explaining how he had been
sewn up by Xuc before being put into a cell with Tom back in Bangkok, the two
of them did everything they could to escape before attacking Xuc and two guards
who summarily beat and sliced up Tom.
It was Xuc who even though being attacked, still let
them out, taking them down into the bowels of the fighting pit, explaining he
wanted to feel safer yet refusing to leave his job. Down in the depths under the pit, a mouth, a
large mouth, the devourer of all the dead flesh that is surrendered through the
fighting. Tom also spoke of how he was
desperate to escape, having been imprisoned in the past, he did not do well
being confined. In his desperation, he
was strung up to a wall in a cell after his escape attempt. Convincing Xuc to release them, they were
taken to a room filled with all of their belongings, mine and Carter’s and
anyone else who had fought and never been seen from again. They had made their way back to the hotel,
Frank had taken over, at the news of Carter and my disappearance, Frank
apparently went to work on Loweman, learning of the location of the
island. They had arrived not long ago,
Will had already been attacked, the fresh blood on his shoulder proving it. A spear from the forest had glanced him.
They had passed several destroyed ships on the docks
of the island, they had also passed a Mansion in the distance, some way back
down the trail and off a few hundred yards through the trees.
The decision was simple, do we run or do we pursue?
Carter and I then explained what we had endured, the
beating, the cages, the island, the woman all of it. However Carter went further, he explained
that the reason he was escaped was nothing more than a challenge, he had
grabbed the blade of the spear, in doing so, he had cut his hand. The woman who was indeed Savitree had let him
out, explaining to him that they were to do battle. He told us she was covered in mouths, on
every limb, barely a patch of skin remained save her face. He was to do battle with her, his mouth
against hers, as he spoke he raised his cut hand, to our horror, instead of an
infected, sliced hand, a cracked mouth with blackened teeth licked its lips
under the light of Tom’s flashlight. I
rose to my feet instantly in shock, as did Will and Tom, what were we to do?
Amputate, shoot him, was he too far gone?
Will pushed for the mansion in his argument, his
method of thinking, destroy the woman, she did this, maybe her death would
remove it. Having no other alternative
than to cut Carter’s hand off, we decided the mansion was where we had to go.
Moving back down the path, Tom led the way, it wasn’t long before another spear flew from the darkness and
struck Will in the back, his scream shocking in the darkness. I ran to him, plucking the spear from his
back and compressing a piece of torn shirt to it, I patched him up as best I
could in the darkness before we pushed on, his determination was commendable,
but he needed more attention.
We approached the mansion from what seemed to be the rear,
its large open grounds revealing a truly magnificent sight, this mansion was
massive, designed to house its masters, servants, gardeners, easily over 100
people.
Between us and the large garden terraces, a small shed
and a greenhouse blocked our view, refusing to split u and investigate in
pairs, we all moved to the greenhouse, its glass fogged as plants had grown
wild, growing through many of the window and ceiling, I looked at Tom who was
at the door who returned my gaze, I shook my head slightly, we decided that
this was not somewhere we wanted to go.
Moving to the shed, I had taken the lead, its old, wooden door locked but
giving way under my heel as I kicked hard.
I took one step inside to see all manner of tools hanging from the walls
and ceiling, however it was the floor that shocked me. The cracking under my shoe made all the more
terrifying when my eyes looked down.
This was a tomb, at least a dozen skulls littered the floor, bones
everywhere, whoever these people were, there were many of them. Stepping back out and closing the door, I
told the others that they should not enter, telling them of the bones, they
agreed and we pressed further onward towards the mansion.
Traversing the rear gardens and approaching the large
oak double doors of the rear of the mansion, everything seemed to be in
disrepair, not a single tile was intact, no window unbroken or cracked. This mansion was fast becoming a ruin.
We pushed open the large doors to find ourselves in a
vacant and grand ballroom, easily the size of the hanger we had first met Janet
and Frank in. No a single sound came
from inside the mansion, we fanned out across the floor, all moving quickly
through rooms and openings, an abandoned and vacant dining room, study,
observatory, music room, all falling apart, the wallpaper lifting and curling,
the floorboards raised at rotting.
Everything here was dead, the only signs of life, the fresh rat
excrement in the corners of the rooms.
We were now faced with two choices, upstairs or
down. I never liked heading downstairs,
reminding myself of what we found in the basement of Samson Trammell’s estate,
yet I was outnumbered, downstairs it was to be.
It was a maze, corridors filled with side rooms, we
were down here for close to an hour checking ever room possible. The living quarters for the servants, the
play areas for children, sleeping areas for children and adults alike. Every single space was silent and disturbing,
no life, yet the remains of a once thriving enterprise. Children’s toys lay dust covered and strewn
across the rooms, the black stains of dried blood littering every wall and
floor. Whatever had happened here, it
had long since passed.
Finally leaving the downstairs area, we moved up
through the ground floor to the level above.
Entering the front section of the upstairs, again, many rooms were empty
and wasting away, however the master bedroom at the front of the house was
different, lived in, clean, this must be where Savitree resides, we were in her
home, in her room, we were in her domain.
Searching the room, Will discovered a key hidden near the wash basin, a
key with no lock, yet.
Moving through the rooms, another empty bedroom, void
of any life, the only sign that this was once occupied, a severed hand laying
clenched in a fist on the floor. Tom was
clearly struggling, this was too quiet, something was off, we all felt it. Another large bedroom, this one however
greeted us with a human skull resting atop the pillow on a neatly made
bed. A strange noise emitting from
it. Carter and Tom took the lead,
rolling it over with the barrel of the shotgun he was holding, Tom recoiled at
the cracked mouth on whispering on the back of the skull. Breaking it with the butt of his weapon, the
skull turned to pieces under the blow from Tom, however the piece with the
mouth, remained whispering and intact.
Moving to the next room, another master bedroom, the
first signs of something living, there ahead of us, sleeping soundly in bed, an
old woman. All of us trained our
firearms at her, Carter was the first to call out, calling the name Savitree,
the old woman rose in a panic, demanding to know who was there, her eyes white,
blind.
Tom, speaking the language discovered that this woman
was Ravi, Grandmother to Savitree. We
spoke to her as Tom would translate, she was scared, hiding something, she knew
something, she knew what had happened here.
Why had Savitree kept her alive?
After putting her in the wheelchair next to her bed,
we kept moving through the upper floor of the house, the old woman stating that
Savitree spent most of her time in the library, as we made our way to where it
was, she grew increasingly more panicked.
The door was locked, Wil however produced the
key. As the door swung open, Ravi whispered,
she told us how Savitree had killed everyone, all who lived here, men, women
and children, she was a monster. Entering
the library, the fear of what resided in this locked room melted away, this
room was enormous, floor to ceiling, 20 feet high shelves covered every wall of
the room, filled to the brim with books on everything I could possible
imagine. The information within this
library could not be amassed by myself in 30 lifetimes, yet here I stood in the
sanctuary of a crazed woman, all information I could ever want to know at my
fingertips.
In the centre of the room, a large circular revolving
table covered in handwritten notations, piles of books and at last, a complete
set of the Revelations Of Glaaki, the one thing Carter and I knew of that
sparket the interest of what he had spoken to in the Yucatan. All the notes on the table seemed to be
sorted into content, if I was to study here, that would be the first place, her
notes on what she believed, all categorised, just waiting for me.
We all knew what we had found, knowledge, to know our
enemy and combat them with a greater understanding. Yet, this enemy was still here, on the island
somewhere, waiting for us, more importantly, waiting for Carter and his mouth.
Tom had come to the conclusion that this library was
the source of Savitree’s power, if we wanted her to come to us, why not burn it
all. A fair assumption, however the
information contained here could equip us with more power and knowledge than we
could have ever hoped to achieve elsewhere.
It was decided that we would indeed burn something, we filled the
bathtubs in all the master bedrooms with books and papers of no importance and
began lighting them, making sure the smoke and flames could be seen to be
emitting from the windows rather than the chimneys, once Savitree realised that
we were burning her precious library, she would come, at least we hope.
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